No Greater Loss
by No Sweeter Song
Summary: With some help from her sisters and Leo, Paige deals with the fact that she may never cast another spell again.


I wrote this for the Charmed LAS challenge on LJ (and won!). This was my first time writing for the fandom. The prompt was to have one of the Charmed ones lose their powers for good.

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"Nothing," she murmured, staring at the vase once again. "Vase!"

But instead of the glimmer of the crystal and the subsequent arrival of it in her hand, it stayed put. Which would have made sense to most people. But not to Paige Matthews. The redhead stomped a foot in frustration, hot tears burning at the edges of her eyes.

"Honey," Piper began, but Paige cut her off with a threatening look. The older sister merely pressed her lips in a tight line and watched, feeling the pain and agony Paige was fighting with as clearly as if it were her own. And if it was painful for her, it was downright miserable for Phoebe, already an empath. To feel that sort of aching echoing off of her little sister had Phoebe on the couch, her hands to her forehead.

"I said, ivase/i!" Paige nearly shouted, causing a cry from Chris, sitting in his toddler seat nearby. If anything would make Paige stop and look, it was one of her nephews being scared of her. Her eyes closed, blocking the pain from the clever little boy. If Wyatt weren't at school, she'd have been in even more trouble. Wyatt knew her inside and out. Chris was still learning her and what made her tick. She could fake it with him. "I'm sorry, sweetie," she said, trying not to cry as she reached down and picked the baby up.

It was as if her nephew knew she needed him more than he needed her. The little boy simply nuzzled into her hold, tucking his head under her chin and waiting patiently. "I just don't know what's wrong with me," she said quietly, finally daring to look back at Piper. Concern flickered in her older sister's eyes, but level-headed Piper refused to look panicked. "Leo?" Paige called, and couldn't help a tiny smile as the child in her arms perked up, looking around for his daddy. "Leo!" she finally called louder when he didn't answer.

A sickly silence fell over the room. It was Phoebe who finally spoke up, admitting the truth that none of the sisters had wanted to speak out loud. "He can't hear you," she all but whispered.

"Yeah, well he can hear me!" Piper snapped. Looking upwards, as if her husband were looking down at her, she shouted, "Leo!"

Paige clung a bit more tightly to her nephew, both of them tensing a bit at Piper's tone. At least one of them relaxed, however, when the familiar blue-tinted lights of an orbing whitelighter filled the room. But instead of addressing the slightly furious face of his wife, he immediately moved towards Paige. Or rather, to Chris, who was still in Paige's arms. "How's my big boy?" he said, his voice goofy and childlike. "Hi there! Yeth, Daddy wuvs 'oo!"

"Leo!" Piper barked, and he turned around sheepishly. "You can ruin Chris' vocabulary later. We have a crisis here!"

Ordinarily strong, Paige merely watched her family. They'd fix it. They always did. They were the Charmed Ones. It was how they worked. Disaster struck all the time, but they found a way out of it. They worked the Book of Shadows, they made a potion or wrote a new spell, Leo consulted the other elders, and it all came together to work out.

It'd be okay. It had to be.

center***/center

"Please tell me you have good news."

Ordinarily, Leo might've replied with some smart alec remark. Something about how if he had bad news he'd be sleeping on the couch or something equally goofy. The fact that his face remained somber sent a chill down Paige's spine as Leo looked first at Piper, who'd spoken, to Phoebe, and finally to Paige. The expression on her face could only be described as stricken.

"Paige, can you still orb?" he asked, looking at her with all the curiosity of lab experiment.

The question took her by surprise. "I haven't tried," she admitted. "When I couldn't use my powers, I think I just panicked. I didn't even consider it."

Leo sighed, touching her shoulder. "Paige, orbing iis/i one of your powers. You've been working so hard at embracing your whitelighter side. And..." The look he gave the sisters was enough to silence any protests they might have shot at him. "And it's probably a good thing you have."

"What do you mean?" Paige whispered, and she felt Phoebe come up behind her, resting her hands on her shoulders.

For a man who'd been around as long as Leo had, he'd never grown used to delivering bad news. Sighing, he shook his head. "Paige, you know that there are reasons why a whitelighter and a witch aren't supposed to have a child." A guilty look flashed towards Piper, but he continued. "The others seem to think that eventually, one side will take over the other. Try orbing."

She didn't want to. To do so and have it work would confirm what he'd said and he couldn't possibly be right. "That can't be right," she argued, shaking her head. "That would mean... I mean, isn't that what makes it special? Wyatt... He's part whitelighter and part witch, right? And isn't he supposed to be some prophesied child?"

Leo winced but only shook his head. "Paige, please. Just try orbing."

She supposed she could've attempted some place beautiful and exotic. But she knew if she was gone more than a minute or two, her sisters would panic. Even if they wouldn't be too thrilled if she left at all.

But the familiar pulling of her body from one place to another as she deposited herself on the other side of the room proved Leo's theory. "What do we do?" she asked, panicked.

Leo swallowed hard. "As far as anyone knows, there's nothing that can be done. You're a whitelighter now, Paige. Completely and fully."

"But the Power of Three!" Piper yelped, terror in her voice.

Leo just shook his head sadly.


End file.
